Gurgaon-based low-cost airline IndiGo has dislodged Jet Airways from the top to become India's largest carrier by market share, as per the latest data released by the aviation ministry. IndiGo displaced Jet Airways, which had been market leader for a long time, from the top position.

IndiGo had a market share of 27% in July. Jet Airways along with its subsidiary, JetLite had a market share of 26.6%. Jet Airways was followed by Air India that had a market share of 18.2% while SpiceJet had 17.8%. Go Air had a market share of 7% while Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher, which has been hit by repeated strikes, was the smallest carrier with a market share of 3.4%.

"As per passenger traffic data submitted by various domestic airlines, the number of passengers carried by them were 354.5 lakh between January-July 2012 as against 348.5 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year showing the passenger traffic growth of 1.7%," a statement issued by the ministry said.

"The total domestic passengers carried by the scheduled domestic airlines for the month of July 2012 were 45.37 lakh. The total domestic passengers carried by the scheduled domestic airlines in the month of June 2012 were 51.08 lakh."

IndiGo is a glowing example of how an airline can be successful if they have competent management (AI and Jet cannot brag the same, and we all know where Kingfisher is at) and effective political connections (IndiGo utilized Praful Patel marvelously - Naresh Goyal must be jealous).

With KFA tanking the other airlines have made hay. The average prices of air tickets have zoomed up by almost 20% and most of the flights are going almost full. This has resulted in Spice Jet and Jet airways showing very good results in the last quarter. They have not only covered up their significant losses but they have also posted decent profit numbers.

For India's healthier airlines, the worst is behind them as drastic flight cuts by embattled former No.2 Kingfisher Airlines enables the others to raise ticket prices.
Market leader Jet Airways and third-placed SpiceJet, which unexpectedly reported quarterly profits last week, were upgraded by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to 'buy.'
The carriers should post smaller losses this financial year and turn profitable in the year ending March 2014, the bank said on Monday.
"The recent first-quarter results of SpiceJet and our own checking of ticket prices every two weeks suggests that pricing recovery has already started. Airlines appear to have achieved some ticket price hikes in the last three months," it said.
"We expect another hike may come during the third quarter, which is the peak season," Anand Kumar and S. Arun, analysts at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, wrote in a note to clients.
Passenger yields on Jet's domestic flights rose about 9 percent in the quarter to end-June, while average revenue per passenger at SpiceJet jumped 24 percent. Yield is a measure of the average fare paid by passengers for a particular distance.

What is interesting that when we talk about the Indian Aviation sector nobody talks about GoAir. they are the baby of the block but last year at the Paris Air show they have placed order for almost 100 aircraft. They will be getting almost 5-6 new aircraft this year alone.

What is interesting that when we talk about the Indian Aviation sector nobody talks about GoAir. they are the baby of the block but last year at the Paris Air show they have placed order for almost 100 aircraft. They will be getting almost 5-6 new aircraft this year alone.

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Perhaps Go-Air will now expand from its western and northern India routes to all over India. In my view, there should be at least 4 low fare flights for the passengers to get decent fares on their journeys. The current rates are too expensive for middle class. The best times was when Deccan was around.

Perhaps Go-Air will now expand from its western and northern India routes to all over India. In my view, there should be at least 4 low fare flights for the passengers to get decent fares on their journeys. The current rates are too expensive for middle class. The best times was when Deccan was around.

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Ah Deccan, what a pleasant time it was! My roomie got the return ticket for 113/- for Mumbai Chennai and went just for the heck of it, though he had nothing to do with Chennai.

DD, both Jet and Indigo are expanding their fleet rapidly. Indigo against the original order for 100 A 320s has taken delivery of 55 aircraft and has to take delivery of balance by 2015. already for this year they have asked Airbus to deliver 15 planes instead of 6-7 as was initially planned.

Also Jet will be taking delivery of around 5 737-800s this year. So overall these 3 airlines might fill in the gap of KFA by the year end.

IndiGo is a glowing example of how an airline can be successful if they have competent management (AI and Jet cannot brag the same, and we all know where Kingfisher is at) and effective political connections (IndiGo utilized Praful Patel marvelously - Naresh Goyal must be jealous).

As Vijay Mallya watches his beloved Kingfisher Airlines collapse to dust, low-cost IndiGo has become the new market leader with its slow and steady approach within just six years of launch.As Mallya grounded more than half of Kingfisher planes to create a capacity vacuum, Indigo managed to not only increase its passenger traffic but also its fleet size.
Moreover, while full time carriers focus on the experience of flying, IndiGo focused on what they thought would matter to its flyers â€”It communicated to the flyer his basic need of getting from point A to point B on time.

Indigo has realised that in a services industry, where competition is so cut throat, it needs to deliver on its promise, which clearly seems to be going in its favour, at least domestically.

IndiGo, the single largest passenger airline in India (it overtook Jet recently by marketshare), now seems to be the most profitable as well.

Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) estimates that IndiGo made a profit of Rs 106 crore in the June quarter, its single largest profit since inception. Whatâ€™s more, the CAPA estimate for IndiGo is double the profit that SpiceJet has declared and more than three times what legacy carrier Jet Airways reported for the same period.

Go Air, the smallest Indian carrier by fleet size, is the surprise package, performing better than most of its larger competitors. CAPA noted that the carrier is maintaining stable operations with a high level of customer satisfaction and has achieved the highest gross fares in the market (Rs 5,100â€5,200) amongst the low-cost carriers, aided by the fact that it operates several routes on which it faces limited competition.